Blog: Personal Stories

“We would have rather served under the Australian flag than a fake Japanese one!” said a sprightly Second World War veteran. He had just asked me if an Australian made replica Japanese flag was still on display. It was going to be used on Motor Launch (ML) 814 during Operation Mosquito in 1943 to confuse the enemy if they were spotted. It was around 2009 and I was honoured to find that I was talking to Marsden Carr Hordern a veteran who had sailed on ML 814 during Operation Mosquito.

Concealed beneath the fine jet black hairs of this bearskin headdress is the gilded flaming grenade badge of the Royal Fusiliers. The bearskin headdress worn with the traditional scarlet full dress uniform during ceremonial and state occasions by British soldiers is an impressive sight, emblematic of the sartorial military splendour of the 18th and 19th century.

A fateful flight : Australian Navigator takes control of his aircraft flying at low level after pilot killed. He has never flown an aircraft before, let alone one with multiple engines and one that is damaged, barely above the water and in the dark. He successfully navigates and flies the aircraft with remaining four crew back to base. Without stalling the aircraft he climbs over the base and his crew mates safely parachute jump. He then safely crash lands the aicraft just after midnight, bringing the body of his pilot back to base and saving his own live. Awarded the second highest gallantry medal to the Victoria Cross for air or naval operations, the Conspicious Gallantry Medal for his actions. Continued to serve in the Air Force, flying in a diverse range of aircraft including gliders and bombers in the United Kingdom for the remainder of the war. Meets and marries his wife in the United Kingdom in 1944, he survives the war and returns to Australia to start a family and resume his career as an architect.